


Shatter, And Be Destroyed

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, F/M, Female Uchiha Itachi, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Soul Bond, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 07:34:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21157958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: Kisame had always been warned away from the Mists, but what choice did he really have? He was a freak, ugly and hated. What did he have to lose, honestly?





	Shatter, And Be Destroyed

The Mists had appeared a few times throughout history. Each time someone had dared them and not been immediately melted, they'd never been seen again. The superstition was that they required a sacrifice. Each Mist had it's own characteristics, it's own presence. Each had been recorded, passed down both in written word and warnings of mothers to children. It seemed to come along once a generation or two. 

The Mist that had claimed Hashirama Senju, for instance, had been volatile and dangerous, though Hashirama himself - according to the old biddies that had known him - had come and gone from it with little issue and been unafraid. Hashirama's Mist had been black, dangerous, and melted trespassers like acid. One day, they said, Hashirama left the village after giving his things away and disappeared into the Mist, never to be seen again. 

The Mist that had taken Minato Namikaze had been different. It had been red, Minato's peers recalled, and was known for a swirling pattern. Sometimes it had swished, they said, like tails. Minato had only returned from the Mist once, gathering some of his things and leaving once more, drawn into the red shimmer. In the same spot, a few years later, the Mist crept back and left behind an infant that looked remarkably similar to Minato. The babe was given the name Naruto Uzumaki by Minato's teacher, Jiraiya, to honour the red swirls in Minato's Mist and the black swirl on the boy's stomach. 

Naruto hadn't lasted much longer than sixteen years before another Mist arose that laid low over the water, the colour of blood. Naruto had gone to it like a man possessed and fought against people who tried to stop him. He had yelled about having to reach Gaara, whoever that was, about having to save Gaara from something he never explained. He'd been chained, but a blood orange Mist of his own enveloped him and ate the chains. No one had been brave enough to touch him, and he had vanished into the water. 

That one had been the one Kisame had witnessed. The poor kid had been hellbent that he was needed, the desperation on his face clear and honest. Truth be told, Naruto was one of the few who had ever deigned to speak to him. The kid's own whisker marks and swirling black mark had alienated him from the rest of the village. Many were certain he was a trap from whatever siren had lured away Minato, a cruel joke about their lost leader. But he knew, from the moment they'd tried to retain him, that Naruto was meant for the sea, for whatever that was out there calling him. 

To be honest, he'd never really understood why they called it mania anyway. Naruto had very clearly heard something, though no one else mentioned the others having done the same. They just . . . wandered away and were never seen again. 

"Do you see it?" 

He looked down at Mei, the only other person in the village that would talk to him. He looked like a shark, after all. A cursed child. "See what?"

She pulled him further onto the street and then he spotted it - a slow-moving embankment of grey cover, creeping along the water. Along the drying lines, dozens of crows sat and watched, not cawing or moving. 

"Another Mist." She sighed. "So soon after the one that took Naruto."

He never bothered to tell anyone how he didn't think Naruto was _taken_, rather that he'd _gone_. It wouldn't matter to them anyway, what the truth was. 

"This one seems to want to move up the shore." He mused. "Think they're gonna try sacrificing people to it to make it go away?"

"Possibly. I can't say."

"We'll see, I guess."

* * *

Naruto's disappearance overshadowed a couple of other Mists that happened. 

A rusty cover had claimed his friend Deidara without any fuss. He'd walked into it in the dead of the same night it arrived, and when it retreated the next morning, he was gone too. Same with Kakuzu, with the fine silver Mist that same with the blue moon. Both Konan and Yahiko vanished into the lilac Mist with the ripples that turned into black rings when you disturbed the water. Darui went missing too, into the Mist that refracted light. And that Sarutobi guy - Asuma? - into the one that was a rich burgundy and echoed the low tones of a woman speaking, though you could never quite make out what she was saying or from where. Some other kids went missing too, like the Inuzuka brat and Shin kid, not to mention the weird one in the green leotard and the girl with her hair in two buns that hung out with him.

A lot of people went missing in this town. 

In an effort to head off the end of the village, the Elder asshole Danzou had made a list of 'volunteers', meaning the people he hated most in the village to go and face the persistent grey Mist. It was also full of people Danzou considered expendable. Mei's worried expression was probably going to be the worst part of walking into the Mist. 

"What the hell?" Came a murmur from the crowd gathered to watch the execution. 

The man sent into the Mist, Genma, walked right back out the same way he'd come in looking beyond confused. 

"Do you not know how to walk straight?" Danzou snapped.

"If I'd have turned around, you'd know it." Genma snapped. "You think I want Raidou to get eaten by this thing? Fuck you, Shimura. It's just all grey and then suddenly you're back out here. If you don't believe me, walk your own ass in there."

Danzou recoiled. Genma was the fifth man to wander around and come out none-the-wiser. 

He walked out of his place in line, Samehada a comforting weight against his back, and walked right into the Mist unprompted. 

"Kisame, wait-" Mei's distressed voice cut out as soon as he was inside the Mist. What Genma said didn't make any sense - he could see all the buildings and trees, even the distant shoreline. 

"The fuck was he on about?" He muttered, wandering deeper. He walked along the familiar path down to the docks. The water was unnaturally still. On the moored rowboats, crows were assembled, watching him. One of them, with blazing red eyes, took to the sky and lead him down the shore to a small cove with a tide pool. There were no tides, not even a breeze, but it was far from horrifying or uncomfortable. Just, eerie. 

He walked around the outcropping of rock that marked the pool, where the crow had landed and froze. 

"Hello." Her voice was smooth and rich, serene and mellow like dark chocolate. 

"Are you an illusion of the Mist?" He cocked his head. "Because you can have me. I won't be missed. Just make it leave."

She cocked her head. "You are who I'm here for, but I think you're getting ahead of yourself, Kisame."

"You know my name?"

"Of course. How else would I know who I was looking for?" She offered a smile. "Come, sit. Leave Samehada propped against the wall. Shisui will watch out for her. We have much to discuss, for me to tell you."

He did as she said, gingerly sitting on the edge of the pool so he could observe all of her. "Are you a woman?"

"In a manner of speaking. I am female, yes, but I am not human."

He looked down the rest of her. "The tail gives it away."

"Yes, I imagine it would." She rolled over onto her stomach, a dorsal fin popping up to stand erect just underneath the small of her back. 

"What are you?"

"A goddess." She pushed some of her bangs out of her face to look at him more clearly, her eyes a glowing red with three black scythe blades slowly spinning inside them. "One of the many lesser goddesses that protect the waters and your village. There are hundreds of us."

"Are all the Mists because of you people?"

"Yes. We are eternal but not immortal, you see. We exist in a life cycle - a god or goddess and their lover, souls bound together. Because our lovers are of mortal creation, we extend their lives as long as we can, then when they die, we die as well, and both of us are born anew. The god returns in full form once their lover reaches their first birthday, then we mature our power until our lover's soul calls out to us." 

"And is that what's happening here?"

"Yes." She slid through the water up to him, using surprisingly strong arms to hoist herself up and gently cup the side of his face. An expression so damn sincere melted his heart, the ages of longing washing away from her youthful face. "Oh, my dear, I have missed you."

"How long has it been for you."

"I have been centuries without you." The way she said it made a physical ache appear in his chest. The urge to reach out to her was very strong, but his need to know what the hell was going on was stronger. "But knowing you were there and unable to reach you was the sweetest pain I've ever known."

"So we weren't reborn at the same time?"

"No, my darling, we were not." Her eyes swirl faster, her black hair plastered down her back. "Usually, we are born closer together. The last time a gap like this occurred was with Madara, and it nearly drove him insane. He would have burned the world to just catch a glimpse of Hashirama."

"Oh." That abruptly made more sense. "No wonder the Mist was so volatile."

"Madara himself is a god of strife and war, so his temper is always simmering, but yes. Being so long without his lover was unbearable to him." She traced the planes of his cheek with callused fingertips. "I sympathize with him very much. But I have no desire to injure the village for something they do not understand nor are welcome to. I only want you, they can keep everyone else."

"I don't even know your name." He felt like he should, though.

"It's Itachi."

"Itachi."

She shivered like the name ripped through her. The shivery moan of pleasure was unexpected. 

"Are you okay?"

"Our names are sacred." She breathed, eyelids fluttering. "To give them to a mortal is entrusting command of our being to them. To hear them spoken by . . . by a lover is ecstasy incomparable."

"Tell me what's happening, Itachi. I need to know. Right now, you're a stranger."

She shivered again, but withdrew, visibly regaining her composure. "Yes. I owe you an explanation."

He let her settle back into the warm water, arms pillowing her head. 

"Time moves as slowly or as quickly as I desire within my Mist, as you call it. With me, here, you will want for nothing. I will give you all the time you require to learn about me again and when you are ready, I will lead you from here and return you home."

"Will I get memories of my past lives?"

"No. We are the same but different." She gazed up at him. "I know my place in this world because I never truly perish. Your soul, the heart of who you are, is reborn as a mortal over and over again, tethered to my own eternal heart. The core of who you are never changes, and in that way I will always know you. But you are not exactly the same as you were before, and neither am I. With each incarnation, we shift slightly and new features become more prominent."

"Do we always look the same?"

"Mostly. I always return to this form." She gestured down to herself. "My shape and colours will never alter. But it is the nature of mortal procreation that you will always come out slightly different. For instance, your hair is bluer than before, and your eyes more pearlescent. In many facets, you will always be the same."

"So, the blue skin and the gills - that's all what I'm supposed to be like."

"Yes. Just as you always are."

"Am I always Kisame?"

"Yes. Your name is tethered to you as mine is to me, though it does not possess the same power."

He looked down at his hands, memories of all the nervous glances and horrified gasps, all the childhood abuse and that one word: _cursed_. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"What possessed you to fall in love with a monster?"

She blinked. "A monster?"

"I'm a bipedal shark man." He had to laugh, though it bordered on hysterical. "I have _gills_, pointed teeth, blue skin - what, did I crawl out of a lagoon and you had to have me?"

She continued to stare at him. 

"What was it, then? Or is this something you won't share?"

"What about your form is there not to admire?" She didn't move, her expression didn't change. She simply stared at him. "The broad strength, the angular lines, the burnished finish to your skin? Am I supposed to find you repulsive? Am I supposed to see your careful gentility, your critical awareness and not be attracted to the respect you show others and the world around you? Am I supposed to witness your skill with a blade and find you less than? What about you should drive me away?"

He swallowed thickly. She didn't have any reason to lie. What would it gain her?

"And if that is the case, should you not also look at me and see a monster?" She cocked an eyebrow. "Half woman, half fish? Should I not appear as a traitorous deception, something to lure the unsuspecting to their deaths in the water? Or do you look at me and see what is most alluring?"

The tail had not escaped him, certainly, but she was right. He didn't think of her as a fish. 

"So tell me, Kisame, what about is ugly about you that is beautiful in me."

"Nothing."

"Exactly." She rolled onto her side, head propped up on her arm. "I know that years of this abuse cannot be erased in a conversation. It is the same every time. You are free to leave and re-enter my Mist as you see fit. I will wait as long as you require me to. As long as you want me to."

"You never answered about what happens if I don't fall in love with you again."

"You will. You always do. If it were not possible, you would not call to me, and you would pass away beyond even my control." She smiled. "But you are here. That is why I will wait."

* * *

"Kisame!"

He was nearly bowled over when Mei launched herself at him, holding his waist tightly.

"Are you stupid?" She demanded. He apparently hadn't been gone long for them, despite spending what felt like hours talking to Itachi. Maybe she was really a goddess. "Are you out of your damn mind?"

"You took longer than me, man. Did you see anything?" Genma asked. 

"I can get rid of the Mist. I need some time."

"We don't have time." Danzou snapped. 

He ignored Danzou and walked back to his house to sleep off this crazy day. 

Samehada in her spot against the wall, he collapsed onto his too-small bed and let sleep overtake him. But even that was not restful. 

_She's beautiful, laying on the shore. Of her human half, she's pale and slender, but strong, lithe like an arrow. She's smooth and ageless, her perfect face marred only by the tear trough lines across her cheeks. Her eyes are grey so deep they're black when she's not using her talents, her hair long and straight, tied back with one small red ribbon. _

_"A gift." She murmurs, laying on his chest. "The first thing you ever gave me."_

_The scales begin just below her pelvis, a slate grey colour that shimmers red when she flexes and sets alight when she's in the sun. Her dorsal spines rise like a crest along her backside, one particularly large spine making up the backbone of her dorsal fin. The fins themselves are thin and fragile, like translucent cotton linens. In the water, they float around her like smoke, creating a shadowy dance as she flits through the water. Her tail fins are not so dainty, rather, a collection of thick spines woven with layers of tough webbing layered in the same gossamer flesh of her fins, hiding the strong and dangerous tail in a mirage. It does nothing to make her less enthralling. If anything, that veiled strength is even more appealing. She's dainty, not fragile, and he is very appreciative of the difference. _

_She gives him the tail of a shark when he joins her, he knows, and its tough skin suits him. He feels like himself at her side, and she never balks. He loves to feel her wrap around him, especially playing in the sand. The way her body fit to perfectly against his, the whisper of those airy fins against his coarse skin makes him shudder. _

_Itachi is a dazzling creature, and all she wants is him._

He woke in a cold sweat with a hard on. He groaned, dropping his sweaty face back down into the soaked pillow. 

* * *

She was asleep when he approached the tide pool. She was resting on her side, coiled at the bottom of the pool, her hair shifting minutely with the flow of the water. Just as the dream informed him, he was aware of the dangerous spines on her tail swishing back and forth with her dreaming. He shed his clothes and entered the pool proper, submersing himself alongside her. 

He'd asked her if it was possible not to fall in love with her, and he realized now just how futile that would actually be. Something in him already wanted her, as set on having her, even without her insistence on the matter. 

He ducked under the surface, letting his little-used gills kick in and allow him to breathe. It wouldn't work well for every long, but it allowed him to be submersed for fifteen minutes more than most people. He used it to look at her more closely, to try to understand her. When he touched the tribal flame tattoo on her shoulder, she opened her eyes at met his gaze. 

"It's the mark of those who already have their lover chosen." She answered his unspoken question. He was, but probably shouldn't have been, surprised that he could hear her so clearly underwater, even in a somewhat shallow tide pool. "Don't worry, you won't get one."

They both surfaced, Itachi leaning him against the side of the pool. She pushed his hair out of his face, achingly tender and gentle. 

"You really do love me, don't you?" He asked lowly, cupping the hand resting on his face. 

"I do." She answered. 

He sat forward, bringing their faces close enough to breathe each other's air. He stopped short, flickering his gaze back up to hers. 

"Do you want me to show you?" She asked. 

"Please." He whispered back. 

Without hesitation, she pressed forward and kissed him, her free hand on his shoulder. She pulled back, assessing his face. 

"What torture you put me through." She said. Before he had a chance to question that, she flattened herself against him, wrapping her arm around his shoulder and kissing him solidly. The desperation and lust she poured into that one action had him wrapping his arms around her waist, hauling her closer. He savoured the way her tail wound between his legs, how she clung to him as though the very sun rose over the breadth of his shoulders. 

"Itachi . . . "

She groaned, ducking her face down into his neck. "You don't understand the _wanting_, Kisame. It's agony, the flavour of your kiss, the texture of your skin, the flex of your arms."

He brought her closer, kissing along her shoulder. "I think I do."

"Two thousand years I lay on the sea floor, hoping to feel you pull me to the surface." She stroked the back of his neck, breathing into his ear. "Waiting and _wanting_, hoping and _reaching_ but returning with nothing. Half of a life, left to waste away. And now, you're right here. You offer me fragments and I can taste the future in them, can feel life return to me in droplets, but you keep me at bay."

"I still don't know much of anything about you." He stroked down the human part of her back, thankfully spine-free. She was so warm. 

"You know everything about me that the sea cannot teach you." She retreated, cupping his face and making him look at her. "Come with me, Kisame. Please, come with me."

"Give me a few more days." He stroked the lines of her cheeks. "Then I'll give you my answer."

"Very well. As long as you require." She pulled away and it felt like stripping flesh. "But please don't play with me. It's agony to taste and be denied."

"I won't, I promise."

* * *

A week passed and every time he walked away, it ached even more. He was ready to go. He had to go. He didn't belong here. 

"What do you keep walking into that accursed Mist for?" Mei demanded. "Kisame, please, talk to me."

"She's there, Mei." He answered cryptically. "She's there and I have to go to her."

"Her? Who's this _her_? There's someone in the Mist?" She got in front of him. "Is she causing it? Does she have you under a spell?"

The villagers were looking at them. _Cursed_. 

"I have to go." He didn't have a better way of explaining it. She would be better off free from him anyway. Maybe that man down the road from her would finally man up and ask her out like she'd been hinting at him to. "I'll miss you, though."

"You bastard, you can't just leave!"

"I'm not leaving, Mei." He finally looked down at her. "I'm going home. She's waiting, and I'll finally be where I'm supposed to be. Not here, with people staring at me like a freak, like a _monster_."

A few townsfolk had the decency to look away in shame. 

"Who is she?" Mei demanded again. 

"You remember what Naruto was yelling about? How there was someone out there that needed him?"

Mei paled. 

"It's not a bad thing. I promise. I wouldn't go if it was bad."

"Yes, you would."

Bluff called. But still. "I would tell you if I thought I was going to get killed. Let me go and think fondly of me, Mei."

She huffed, torn between punches and tears, but eventually stepped to the side. 

"I'll miss you." He said.

"Me too." She choked out. 

And so he vanished into the Mist as well. 

* * *

* * *

"The tail is weird."

She smiled. "You'll get used to it."

"So I'm told." He squeezed her hand. "Where are we going?"

"The cove of the gods." She answered. "I thought you might like to meet others like you."

"Others lost to the Mist?"

"Indeed. I'm sure you know most of them if you know about Hashirama."

"Hashirama was like a folk tale. He's still alive down here?"

"More than alive, Kisame." Her eyes glowed in the darkness. "So much more than simply _alive_."

She led them down through a crevasse and deeper still until suddenly they were back in the light, the crack in the sea floor opening up to a sun-drenched sea bed teeming with life that swam around sunken ruins as pristine as the moment they submerged. Other folk like them were visible on the horizon, but the one that spotted them immediately was Naruto. 

"Woah, Kisame! You're down here too?" He swam over, all firey orange scales and black spines. Notably, on his shoulder was a tribal flame. "That's amazing! And Itachi's mate to boot! Sweet!"

A redhead with black-rimmed eyes followed leisurely, a gentle smile on his face. 

"Oh! Kisame, I would like you to meet my partner, Gaara. He was the one calling out to me. I also found out something awesome. My mom and my dad are down here! You know that guy Minato? Yeah, well, my mom's a goddess and he's her lover! They had to put me on land because I wasn't supposed to happen yet. Gaara called out to me, though. It was his voice I could hear, remember? Isn't that cool? There's so many other people we know down here."

He glanced at Itachi, hoping she would help him out, but she only smiled placidly. 

And Naruto was right. So many of their former townsfolk were down here. 

Deidara was quick to find him too, introducing him to his lover Sasori and to Kakuzu's mate, Hidan. Darui was with a man named Shi. Asuma (he'd remembered the name right) was with a gorgeous woman by the name of Kurenai and they had a little one, Mirai. Konan and Yahiko had been lured down by a redhead named Nagato, apparently a cousin of Naruto's mother. Even Mangetsu's missing little brother Suigetsu was down here, mated to Itachi's brother Sasuke. 

"It's so amazing down here, isn't it?" Naruto gushed. 

"I'm not sorry to be gone." Deidara huffed. "Way nicer down here."

"You just say that because you get sex regularly." Kakuzu huffed, himself shaped after an orca. 

"And if I do?" Deidara sniffed. "Don't get stupid on me now, Kuzu."

"I hate it when you call me that."

"I know, that's why I do it, hn."

Itachi had draped herself over him, basking in his unforced proximity. Her pet her tail, fingers idly playing with the wispy fins as he listened to the others talk. 

"Oh, did I tell you about Lee and TenTen making it down here? And Shin? Oh! And Kiba! Neji, Sai and Hinata are really, really nice. You'd like them. They're younger than Itachi, but they're still really cool."

"I was hoping to have him to myself for a while." Itachi hummed. 

"Yeah, idiot." Sasuke waved Naruto away. "Remember how all-over Gaara you were? Practically indecent."

"I couldn't even sleep because of you when I got down here, Sasuke." Suigetsu pointed out. "Don't be so hard on him. This is his first time and everything."

"Yeah, duck-assed bastard."

"Excuse me?!"

"_Or_, you can play nice?"

All of them hushed as Hashirama swam up to them, a bright smile on his face. He was the only one who was brown, yet managed to look even livelier than Naruto or Minato, with his stunning blue tail that rippled in the sunlight like gems. 

"Yes, Hashirama." 

Hashirama smiled at them when the kids had gone, kissing them both on the forehead. "Madara is Itachi's uncle, so as another outsider, welcome back Kisame. We've got a room all prepared for you, if you'll follow me. Then you can have all the time alone you'd like."

"Uh, thanks."

"No problem." 

Itachi disentangled herself, pressing a sweet kiss to his mouth. Her slate eyes glittered, smiling brightly and fully. "Welcome home, my dear."

He grinned back. "Thank you for bringing me home."


End file.
